Jonah Reading Plan | Week 4 – Day 1
Jonah Reading Plan | Week 4 – Day 1
Jonah 2:1 – 3 ESV
Jonah’s Prayer
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish,
2 saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.
3 For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me.
a. Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish’s belly: Jonah was still in the belly of the fish but he knew it was enough that the LORD had heard his cry (You heard my voice). In faith, Jonah knew that he would be delivered.
i. Jonah knew God heard him before the answer came. This shows that Jonah had faith and that God can give a total peace and assurance that prayer is answered, even before the actual answer comes.
b. I cried out to the LORD: In this and the rest of the chapter, Jonah’s prayer uses many phrases and figures of speech from the Psalms. This shows that Jonah was a man who knew God’s Word, and knew it by heart, because there was no Bible and no candle in the fish’s belly.
- In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple. (Psalm 18:6)
- Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and billows have gone over me. (Psalm 42:7)
- For I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before Your eyes”; nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications when I cried out to You. (Psalm 31:22)
c. You cast me into the deep: Jonah realized that it wasn’t the sailors who cast him into the sea — it was God Himself. Jonah saw that he had never been out of God’s hands, though he tried to run from Him.